Looking Back

At the end of this week, I will celebrate my first anniversary as a quilt blogger, and it has been fun to look back over the last year's worth of posts and what I have accomplished.  Getting involved in the online quilt community has been fun, inspiring, and full of lots of learning for me!  Thank you to everyone who has hosted linky parties for me to join, posted tutorials that I have learned from, or taken the time to visit my blog and comment on my projects.  I think I have accomplished more in this one year than ever before in my 15 or so years of quilting.  It has been a year of many firsts!

My first Block of the Month to participate in, thanks to Kristy of Quiet Play.  From this first block in January:

to the finished product in November:

From my hours and hours (and hours!) spent reading blogs and tutorials, I have completed a Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt:

  

 an Open-wide Zipper Pouch:

 

 

several baby quilts:

and many other smaller projects, like this fun pincushion for my quilt group's Christmas gift exchange.

 

 

Of course there are various WiPs that I have plans for in 2014 as well!  And finally, yesterday, I finished up a Christmas quilt (only a few days late!) that I slept under last night.  I think it is true that I always love my current project the most, and that is definitely true of this particular quilt.  It is made from a layer cake of Aspen Frost, and the Layer Cake Lemonade pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop, so it went together quickly and was fun to make!

  

I love the bright, modern colors, especially the aqua, red, and olive green together.  I machine quilted it simply, mostly echoing the seams, but with a few curvy, "organic" lines through the middle of the bigger blocks.

I added a row of the leftover main fabrics to make a pieced back, which makes the back interesting to look at, too!

Even though Christmas is past, I'm going to enjoy this quilt well into the new year because it just makes me happy to look at, and isn't that what creating is all about?!

I am wishing all of you the Happiest of New Years, and a 2014 full of quilty inspiration!  I can't wait to see what I learn about next!

Linking up to Freemotion by the River for the last linky party of 2013!

WIP for a Thursday

Between being out of town for Thanksgiving, and a busy week at work, I haven't had much time for sewing, but I have a WIP that I'm looking forward to working on this weekend.  A few weeks ago, a layer cake of this arrived on my doorstep.

I wanted to try making a simple, modern Christmas quilt.  I discovered that I love this line of fabric! Here are a few close-ups of my favorites.

 

About the time that I got the fabric, I saw this tutorial for the Layer Cake Lemonade pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop.  I decided it was the perfect pattern for a quick and simple Christmas quilt that my family would enjoy for the holidays.  It is also great for featuring the fun patterns in the fabric because there isn't a lot of cutting to be done.  Half of the pieces are used in their 10 inch square size.

My Aspen Frost layer cake turned into this:

 

 

The colors in this photo aren't the best because of the lighting in my sewing room, and the fact that I am not home much in the daylight these days!  But at least you can see the pattern.  I am really loving the teal and olive green in this fabric.  It's so different from the typical Christmas colors.  I was ready to try something more modern! 

 

I've been working on a pieced backing for the quilt this week.  There is one strip of the half-size pieces left when you are done piecing the top, so I decided to work it into the back.  The rest is a yardage of red with white hearts that I am also using for the binding.

 

 

I am definitely looking forward to putting the quilt sandwich together this weekend and starting on the quilting!

 

I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday this week!

 

Pincushion Project

My quilt group always does a fun project for our December get-together where we each make a gift and then bring it to the meeting where we have one of those crazy gift exchanges.  It's the type of gift exchange where you never know whose gift you're going to end up with - lots of stealing and hilarity goes on! We have made dolls, snowmen, pins, bags, table-toppers, mug rugs, and more that I can't even remember.  It's always fun and it is definitely the meeting I don't want to miss.

This year's theme is pincushions.  I was excited to give this one a try because I've been seeing so many adorable pincushions on many of the blogs I follow.  Finding the one I wanted to make required lots of searching for the perfect tutorial.  I always think (hope!) that if I make something I would love to have, then someone in my group will love it, too!  Here is what I came up with:

It is called a Couch Pincushion, made from this tutorial by Bree McElroy from Distant Pickles.  I found it posted on Riley Blake Designs where there were tons of pincushion ideas.  It is meant to hang over the edge of a chair or couch for when you are doing some hand sewing.

Since I love hand-sewing my bindings, I am always sticking pins and needles into the arm of my couch.  This is the perfect solution to that problem!  The pincushion also has a couple of built-in pockets for carrying your scissors, thread, and whatever other notions you need for your project.  I really love how this turned out!  I may need to make one for myself!

I'm linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts!

Braided Herringbone Quilt Top

I just finished this quilt top yesterday from Kelly's tutorial on My Quilt Infatuation.  It is actually posted on Sew in Love (with Fabric) as a part of their Holiday Headstart Blog Hop.

I love this line of fabric - Hello Sunshine - from Connecting Threads.  Even though it isn't a fall theme, or anything remotely related to the holidays, it has been fun to work with this past week. 

Right now, this quilt top is about 40" by 50" which would be perfect for a baby quilt.  However, I am really loving it, so I'm not sure I will want to give it away!  It looks pretty good with my blue couch!

To make it more useful here at home, I am thinking of adding some extra borders to it to make it larger.  I have lots of extra fabric, so that will be easy to do.  For now, though, I'm going to set it aside because it really is time to get going on a few Christmas projects!

Braided Herringbone WIP

About a year ago, I ordered a kit with yardages of Hello Sunshine from Connecting Threads. Although I loved the fabric, I never really wanted to get going on the pattern that came with the kit.  So it sat in my stash for the last year, or more!

 

 

I can't decide which of the fabrics in this line is my favorite.  Maybe this one?

 

 

It reminds of fireworks!  Or this one?

 

 

 

It could be a galaxy up in the summer sky!





When I saw this tutorial from Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation, I knew I wanted to make her quilt pattern, a braided herringbone.  As I was thinking about my fabric choices, I remembered I had the Hello Sunshine fabric, and I knew I had enough of that for this quilt.  So, it was just a matter of cutting fat quarters from the fabric and then trimming them up to meet the sizes needed for the braided herringbone.  Here is what I've gotten done so far:

 

Kelly's pattern calls for 10 fat quarters of fabric to make the quilt top, and my Hello Sunshine yardage included 5 different fabrics.  I added in a fat quarter of white, and one of a creamy yellow that I thought would go with the rest of the fabric.  Next, I need to trim up the blocks, put them together, and add the borders.  I think I'm going to love this quilt!  I'm not sure what I will do with it yet.  Maybe it will go to a friend who is expecting a baby next summer.  I may love it so much that I want to keep it!  I'm excited to see the finished product! 

 

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday!

And Sew On Wall-Hanging

When I joined this BoM back in January, I had no idea what would really be involved, but it has turned out to be a fantastic experience.  I am so excited about the way this project has come together that I can't stop looking at it!  It has so many fun details within each block. 

I think my favorite block is the one in the upper right-hand corner, the stash cupboard.  It was so fun picking little scraps to make those stacks of fabric.  Of course, the most challenging block was the final one, in the center, the Sewing Sanctuary.  I lost count of how many little parts were required to make the whole thing!  Fortunately, it came together pretty easily. 

I am almost done with the whole project, just need to sew on the binding, but I decided to link up today because I don't know if I will get that binding completed before the Nov. 7 linky deadline.  My goal, for sure, is to have it completed to show off at my November quilt group get together in a week and a half. 

Thanks, Kristy, for hosting a fun BoM, and sharing your wonderful patterns with us!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Although I made several baby quilts this year, my favorite was one I mostly made out of my scraps.  I just wanted to try something new so I started stitching!  Here's what came out of the trying:

This was a quilt of many firsts for me: first improv quilting, first pieced back, first FMQ (more practice needed there!), first black polka-dot binding, and first quilt to give away to someone other than family or friends.  When I look at the pictures again, I have a twinge of "Oh, maybe I should have kept it..."  But when I think about a young mom cuddling her baby with a quilt I made! I feel proud that I sent it off.


This will also be my first time ever to link up to the Blogger's Quilt Festival, hosted by Amy's Creative Side.  I have definitely enjoyed browsing through all those links in this last year since I entered the blogging world.  Excited to be a part of it!